135.106 - HEALTHY FAMILIES PROGRAMS -- HOPES-HFI PROGRAM.

        135.106  HEALTHY FAMILIES PROGRAMS -- HOPES-HFI
      PROGRAM.
         1.  The Iowa department of public health shall establish a healthy
      opportunities for parents to experience success (HOPES)--healthy
      families Iowa (HFI) program to provide services to families and
      children during the prenatal through preschool years.  The program
      shall be designed to do all of the following:
         a.  Promote optimal child health and development.
         b.  Improve family coping skills and functioning.
         c.  Promote positive parenting skills and intrafamilial
      interaction.
         d.  Prevent child abuse and neglect and infant mortality and
      morbidity.
         2.  The HOPES-HFI program shall be developed by the Iowa
      department of public health, and may be implemented, in whole or in
      part, by contracting with a nonprofit child abuse prevention
      organization, local nonprofit certified home health program or other
      local nonprofit organizations, and shall include, but is not limited
      to, all of the following components:
         a.  Identification of barriers to positive birth outcomes,
      encouragement of collaboration and cooperation among providers of
      health care, social and human services, and other services to
      pregnant women and infants, and encouragement of pregnant women and
      women of childbearing age to seek health care and other services
      which promote positive birth outcomes.
         b.  Provision of community-based home-visiting family support
      to pregnant women and new parents who are identified through a
      standardized screening process to be at high risk for problems with
      successfully parenting their child.
         c.  Provision by family support workers of individual
      guidance, information, and access to health care and other services
      through care coordination and community outreach, including
      transportation.
         d.  Provision of systematic screening, prenatally or upon the
      birth of a child, to identify high-risk families.
         e.  Interviewing by a HOPES-HFI program worker or hospital
      social worker of families identified as high risk and encouragement
      of acceptance of family support services.
         f.  Provision of services including, but not limited to, home
      visits, support services, and instruction in child care and
      development.
         g.  Individualization of the intensity and scope of services
      based upon the family's needs, goals, and level of risk.
         h.  Assistance by a family support worker to participating
      families in creating a link to a "medical home" in order to promote
      preventive health care.
         i.  Evaluation and reporting on the program, including an
      evaluation of the program's success in reducing participants' risk
      factors and provision of services and recommendations for changes in
      or expansion of the program.
         j.  Provision of continuous follow-up contact with a family
      served by the program until identified children reach age three or
      age four in cases of continued high need or until the family attains
      its individualized goals for health, functioning, and
      self-sufficiency.
         k.  Provision or employment of family support workers who have
      experience as a parent, knowledge of health care services, social and
      human services, or related community services and have participated
      in a structured training program.
         l.  Provision of a training program that meets established
      standards for the education of family support workers.  The
      structured training program shall include at a minimum the
      fundamentals of child health and development, dynamics of child abuse
      and neglect, and principles of effective parenting and parenting
      education.
         m.  Provision of crisis child care through utilization of
      existing child care services to participants in the program.
         n.  Program criteria shall include a required match of one
      dollar provided by the organization contracting to deliver services
      for each two dollars provided by the state grant.  This requirement
      shall not restrict the department from providing unmatched grant
      funds to communities to plan new or expanded programs for HOPES-HFI.
      The department shall establish a limit on the amount of
      administrative costs that can be supported with state funds.
         o.  Involvement with the community assessment and planning
      process in the community served by HOPES-HFI programs to enhance
      collaboration and integration of family support programs.
         p.  Collaboration, to the greatest extent possible, with other
      family support programs funded or operated by the state.
         q.  Utilization of private party, third party, and medical
      assistance for reimbursement to defray the costs of services provided
      by the program to the extent possible.
         3.  It is the intent of the general assembly to provide
      communities with the discretion and authority to redesign existing
      local programs and services targeted at and assisting families
      expecting babies and families with children who are newborn through
      five years of age.  The Iowa department of public health, department
      of human services, department of education, and other state agencies
      and programs, as appropriate, shall provide technical assistance and
      support to communities desiring to redesign their local programs and
      shall facilitate the consolidation of existing state funding
      appropriated and made available to the community for family support
      services.  Funds which are consolidated in accordance with this
      subsection shall be used to support the redesigned service delivery
      system.  In redesigning services, communities are encouraged to
      implement a single uniform family risk assessment mechanism and shall
      demonstrate the potential for improved outcomes for children and
      families.  Requests by local communities for the redesigning of
      services shall be submitted to the Iowa department of public health,
      department of human services, and department of education, and are
      subject to the approval of the Iowa empowerment board in consultation
      with the departments, based on the practices utilized with community
      empowerment areas under chapter 28.  
         Section History: Recent Form
         92 Acts, 2nd Ex, ch 1001, § 419; 97 Acts, ch 138, §1; 98 Acts, ch
      1206, §10; 2004 Acts, ch 1086, §35; 2006 Acts, ch 1157, §15
         Referred to in § 232.69